Brockton teachers, students argue against layoffs

BROCKTON – In a passionate display during Tuesday’s School Committee meeting, several students and teachers offered testimony against teacher layoffs and other proposed budget cuts in light of a $5.7 million budget shortfall.The standing-room-only crowd packed the George M. Romm Little Theater at Brockton High School after district officials issued layoff notices to 199 certified teachers on Thursday in an initial effort to close the multi-million dollar budget gap. Pink slips were handed out in order to meet a May 15 contractual employment notification deadline.

Many who testified last night said teacher cuts would not only increase class sizes, but threaten student learning and crucial programs.

“I’m looking out for the students coming in. These cuts are a detriment to them,” said Shoshanna Wilson, 18, a Brockton High School senior, who along with with several others, addressed the board as well as Mayor Bill Carpenter and School Superintendent Kathleen Smith.

Matthew Cunningham, the choral director at the high school, who received a layoff notice, also voiced his concern.

“My fear is that my students won’t have a choral program,” he said afterward. “A lot of my students come to school just for that and so to think that there’s a chance that that might be cut, is, quite frankly, heartbreaking.”

Though personnel costs account for the majority of the district’s total $166 million level-services budget, Smith pledged to leave “no stone unturned” in an attempt to minimize the impact to students and staff.

Officials plan to seek out alternatives and additional funding streams to make up for the loss, she assured.

“It’s important for me to stand here as your superintendent to work very closely with my school committee, who have been supportive, to work with Mayor Carpenter, and to somehow come up with a way so we can live with the budget as we go forward,” she said.

Meanwhile, the mayor offered a glimmer of hope to those in attendance when he announced that he would restore roughly $500,000 in the district’s non-net school spending, which covers transportation costs. The move brings funding in that area to a leveled appropriation of $7.3 million, and will spare most of the district’s school buses from the chopping block and maintain walk zones throughout the district, he said.

In addition, the current allocation of Chapter 70 state education aid is set to increase from about $157 million in the current fiscal year to roughly $160 million under Carpenter’s proposed budget for net school spending, which does not include transportation and other non-education related costs.

Nevertheless, the district’s current budget picture remains uncertain as officials struggle to plug the loss of several funding streams, which include roughly $2 million in Title I federal funds; and about $1.5 million of the temporary, federal grant program Race to the Top, Carpenter said.

The district must also account for roughly $2 million in contractual step increases, increased health insurance costs and other expenditures, he added.

Committee Vice Chairman Thomas Minichiello noted that the district’s current budget situation is ever changing and could change over the coming weeks.

“We take on this challenge very willingly,” he said. “We don’t expect anyone to cry for us. We plan to do the hard work and we always will.”